Lemieux is entitled to cash out
Interested in buying a hockey team?
It looks like there might be a pretty good local one on the market soon. Maybe you’ve heard, Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle are looking into the possibility of selling the Penguins.
That’s a long way from actually selling the team, but when you hire Morgan Stanley to send out feelers, you’re serious about finding out what you can get.
Morgan Stanley found Terry Pagula to buy the Buffalo Sabres a few years ago.
Why wouldn’t Lemieux want to cash in?
He saved the franchise at least three times and there’s a good chance he’s had about as much fun being an owner as he’s going to have. Remember when he was seriously talking about selling the team before Consol Energy Center became a reality?
I seem to remember the conventional wisdom was he was going to cash in even if he were able to get an arena, and he was waiting for a new building to maximize the sale price.
Then, the ping-pong ball bounced his way and Sidney Crosby dropped in his lap.
Lemieux had a billionaire partner, a brand new building and the new face of hockey. He also had a salary cap. Pretty soon he would have a Stanley Cup, 300-straight sellouts and the highest local TV ratings in the NHL. Being the owner was fun.
Now, he has two not-so-young superstars, Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, who, justifiably or not, are beginning to acquire reputations as underachievers, if not chokers. Fans are getting restless.
Forbes Magazine estimated the value of the franchise at $535 million.
Lemieux can maintain enough of a share to keep his private box at Consol Energy Center and a seat on the team charter, but not enough to have to answer for all the potential problems that might lie ahead.
Because of him, the team is going nowhere. And because of him, thousands of kids in Western Pennsylvania, who would otherwise be playing some other sport, are playing hockey. No athlete in Pittsburgh history – if not North America – has done more for his team. Nobody has ever been more entitled to cash in.
And remember, on top of all that, Lemieux offered the city a free arena.
Of course, his plan was turned down, but that’s another story.
• What does it say about New York City as a sports market when the Tampa Bay Lightning get higher TV ratings for the Eastern Conference Finals than the New York Rangers? It says NYC is one of the worst sports towns in America.
• ESPN took a lot of heat for announcing it would present Caitlyn Jenner with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage next month at the ESPYs. The heat came from people who thought there were many more deserving athletes, such as Lauren Hill – a Mount St. Joseph basketball player who stayed on the team while battling brain cancer and helped to raise millions of dollars for cancer research – or double amputee Noah Galloway, who was injured in Iraq and still competes in extreme sports.
Did what Jenner chose to do really require that much courage? By all accounts, people close to him knew about his transgender tendencies for years. Who was the last celebrity to come out as gay or transgender who wasn’t exalted to near sainthood? Look at the reaction to Jenner.
She will be given one of the loudest and longest standing ovations in television history when she receives her award at the ESPYs. Do you think Jenner didn’t know what the reaction would be?
Questioning the wonderfulness of it all, on the other hand, requires a certain amount of courage. That’s why you don’t see too many in the media going against the grain on this one.
• Lots of people thought NBC was crazy when it signed on with the NHL and agreed to put on the Stanley Cup Final but Wednesday’s Game 1 was the highest-rated show on network TV with the 18-49 demographic.
• When you or, more important, the Penguins are evaluating the team and making future decisions, the fact no team in hockey has been impacted more by injury since 2009-2010 has to be considered.
• I guess we wont be hearing any Lemieux-Burkle to buy the Pirates rumors for a while.
• So, tell me again why the Steelers should have a deal to make all the profits on sold out concerts at Heinz Field?
• I’m sure the people who were stupid enough to elect Sepp Blatter to his fifth term as president of FIFA will do a really good job of fixing things now that Sepp resigned.
• In case you missed it, there was a urinal for sale on eBay this week. It came from the Detroit Lions’ locker room at the old Pontiac Dome and was signed by Barry Sanders. The bid was $600.
John Steigerwald writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.